Cops murder Staten Island man accused of selling cigarettes.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

A 400-pound asthmatic Staten Island dad died Thursday after a cop put him in a chokehold and other officers appeared to slam his head against the sidewalk, video of the incident shows.

“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Eric Garner, 43, repeatedly screamed after at least five NYPD officers took him down in front of a Tompkinsville beauty supply store when he balked at being handcuffed.

Within moments Garner, a married father of six children with two grandchildren, stopped struggling and appeared to be unconscious as police called paramedics to the scene. An angry crowd gathered, some recording with smartphones.

“When I kissed my husband this morning, I never thought it would be for the last time,” Garner’s wife, Esaw, told the Daily News.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/staten-island-man-dies-puts-choke-hold-article-1.1871486?utm_content=buffer8e086&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw

[SamKnause]

1. Gangs in blue.

Judge, jury, and executioners.

Absolutely sickening !!!!

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Ho hum. Just another police killing in America.

[d_b]

3. I'm so sick of these stories

the pigs are out of fucking control all across this nation. If there's one thing the right and left can unite on, it's putting an end to this shit where cops murder people and then get six weeks paid vacation.

[NaturalHigh]

4. "Police officials said Garner had a history of arrests for selling untaxed cigarettes."

Well gee, there's a good reason to kill somebody. It's a good thing all the rapists and murderers are locked up already.

For the sarcasm impaired.

[TorchTheWitch]

5. nobody was murdered

He had a heart attack. He was 400 lbs. and asthmatic. He resisted arrest. He was in a choke hold for only a few seconds, and his head was not slammed on the ground.

The police did nothing wrong. He just happened to have a heart attack moments after being taken to the ground which wouldn't have happened in the first place had he not resisted. He certainly seemed like he was on an adrenaline overload while the police were talking to him with how he was acting. I thought he was on some kind of uppers.

His wife claims that just before he'd broken up a fight. If that's true he could have already stoked his heart and been in the beginning stages of a heart attack already when the police were talking to him. But she could have gotten that from the kid who was taking the video. He keeps sayin gthat the police were hassling him because he broke up a fight when at the same time you can here the conversation the police are having with the guy which was about his illegally selling untaxed cigarettes though he tried to deny it.

I'd bet cash money that he would have had a heart attack that day without any involvement with police at all.

There's plenty of cases where the police are in the wrong and sometimes grossly so. This isn't one of them, and there's no reason to pretend that it is.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

6. pretend?

Yeah. thanks. They're still murderers to me, your insults notwithstanding.

[TorchTheWitch]

7. yeah, pretend

no one was murdered. The guy just had a heart attack.

Just how are they murderers when they had to take him down because he was resisting arrest, didnt do anything wrong and the guy happened to die of a heart attack? NOTHNG the police did gave him his heart attack. He was caught - again - selling illegal cigarettes, tried to lie his way out of it getting himself all aggitated, resisted arrest necessitating his being taken down so he could be handcuffed and had a heart attack which is not so unusual for someone so overweight with health problems already. It's illigical to think of them as murderers when he died of a HEART ATTACK that was not magically induced by the police.

It isn't helpful to blame police of wrongdoing in a case where they didn't do anything wrong. As I said there are plenty of legitimate instances to complain about. And when people feign outrage over a non-issue event then all that does is make people believe you're just a cop hater in general and question every case you bring up.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

8. I'm not ok with killing the guy over cigarettes. The cops killed him.

You seem a little jaded about his death. Since I'm diametrically opposed to your opinion on moral grounds, this isn't going anywhere. Have a nice weekend.

[woo me with science]

9. Wow, another incomprehensibly vile and authoritarian response from you.

Last time it was defending firing a 73-year-old man from his job, because he had given away a corn muffin to a hungry person, five times.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025165684#post67

[woo me with science]

10. Good god, there's a new one every day.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

11. I don't think that's far from the mark.

We are reaping the militarized police force that we've sown.

[onethatcares]

12. the cops were just

trying to collect the tax revenue from his cigarette sales.

You know. The way they try to collect tax revenues from the banks and financial institutions on wall street.

[napkinz]

13. #JusticeforEricGarner

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/eric_garner/




Please take action and demand that NYC Police Commissioner Bill Bratton immediately start the process to fire all the officers involved in this devastating police killing. Furthermore, Mayor Bill de Blasio and District Attorney Donovan have the power and the responsibility to hold the police department completely accountable.

Here's the letter we'll send NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan on your behalf. You can add a personal comment using the box provided.

Dear District Attorney Donovan, Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bratton,

I am deeply troubled by the outrageous conduct of the officers who choked Eric Garner to death in Staten Island. Garner is the latest in a long history of Black and brown New Yorkers who have unjustly had their lives cut short by police officers over the past decades. But this time the entire brutal encounter was caught on tape.

The officers involved can be seen using a violent chokehold to subdue Eric – which runs counter to the NYPD's use of force policy. This brutal choking is yet another example of unnecessary police encounters resulting from policing policies and practices that target Black and brown communities, such as Stop and Frisk and now Commissioner Bratton's "broken windows" tactic. These discriminatory tactics subject Black and brown New Yorkers to constant harassment, violence and can can quickly escalate and turn fatal.

In order for these incidents to end, it is critical that a thorough and fair investigation be conducted, justice be served and all of the officers involved in the deadly altercation be held accountable.

We demand that these officers be held completely accountable for their outrageus conduct and excessive use of force.

Sincerely,

Your Name